KENT EARLY

SCHOOL Bentonville

NOTABLE Led the Lady Tigers to their fourth consecutive state championship and fifth in the past six seasons with a 3- 1 win against Cabot in the Class 6A state title game. … Team went 14- 0 to win the 6A-West title, then rolled through the state tournament with wins against North Little Rock (11-4) and Bryant ( 13- 3). … In the championship game, the Lady Tigers got just one hit, but rode sophomore Ryann Sanders’ 14 strikeouts and stellar defense. … Bentonville was 24-3 on the season with all three losses to nationally ranked Benton. … Also has a state championship as Bentonville’s boys golf coach. … Early is the son of the late college basketball and softball coaching icon Alvy Early, who won 1,178 games combined in both sports and is a member of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

THAT’S WHAT HE SAID “The pressure to maintain sometimes does weigh on you a little and sometimes it does get the better of you, and sometimes the kids might not have a best personal performance because they are trying so hard, but we’ve been fortunate that the team has overcome. But it does get to you and it’s something that you try to prepare for. These kids just find a way to win. They are tough. It’s what they do. We were not a one-dimensional team. We found ways to win. In the championship game our pitching and our defense showed up and you can’t get beat if you don’t give up runs. I think we’re known as a hitting team, but we want to be as well-rounded as we can. We don’t want to be weak in any area. We want to be strong in all facets. It’s like having a Plan B. We don’t want to have a weakness in any part of our game because we don’t want to get exposed. Because pretty soon if you play long enough, somebody is going to see that you don’t do this well or you don’t do that well. And they’ll exploit that.”

Early